A miserly spell of spin bowling from Orin Forde (4-25) followed by a face saving innings of 40 from former national under-19 captain Steven Jacobs help steered Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) to a tense two wicket victory over their host Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) nationwide Neal and Massey limited overs competition at the GCC ground Bourda on Saturday.
GCC won the toss and opting to take first strike, were bowled out for 150 from 39.2 overs on a good batting wicket where batsmen from both sides failed to apply themselves in the 40 overs-a-side encounter.
National under-19 batsman Jeetendra Sookdeo led their batting with a polished 49 that was decorated with four fours from the 78 balls he faced. Trevor Henry made a responsible 26 from 36 balls hitting one four whilst clearing the boundary once also and in partnership with Sookdeo added 44 runs for the fifth wicket from nine overs.
But their batting fell away after being 134-5 as they crumbled to the bowling of Forde.
MSC were also in a spot of bother when they began their reply, as they lost the attacking Imran Hassan in the sixth over lbw to Gavin Singh with the scoreboard reading 18-1. Jacobs joined another former under-19 player in opener Shemroy Barrington and together they added 60 for the second wicket.
They both celebrated their call up to the senior Demerara team for trials, playing some audacious shots during the partnership that brought their team closer to their target of 151 from their 40 overs.
But Dellon Fernandes, Ravi Sarwan, the younger brother of West Indies vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan and Sookdeo had other ideas and placed the Thomas Lands based side on their back foot, and even though Danny Narayan who in partnership with Damien Van Tull tried to pull their team back, they were still short by six runs at the start of the final over bowled by Sookdeo (2-27).
Narayan was run out off the second delivery, but Van Tull kept his nerves, and after hitting Sookdeo down to mid off for two, he struck the penultimate delivery over a wide midwicket for two more to see his team home.
Fernandes who can consider himself rather unlucky not to be included in the 14 man squad selected by the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) junior selection panel to contest the upcoming Clico Under-17 Inter-county two day competition, claimed 3-20.
